The Russian authorities intend to ban European transport companies from operating in Russia in response to European sanctions. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the document being developed. The measures are designed to help Russian transport companies, which, having lost the European market, found themselves in an extremely vulnerable position, and some companies are even on the verge of bankruptcy.
According to one of the publication's sources, the document is undergoing interdepartmental coordination, but ministries and departments have no fundamental objections to it. It is expected that the document will be officially submitted to the government on August 1. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade must additionally prepare lists of goods whose transportation will not be subject to restrictions. The new system assumes that now European and Russian cargo will only reach the border, where they will be re-hooked or reloaded and sent further to their destination.
According to RBC, the government is afraid to introduce retaliatory restrictions on an ongoing basis, therefore, at the moment, the possibility of holding a trial period from October 1 to the end of 2022 is being considered. The measure is supposed to help the Russian automotive transportation industry, which has been hit hard by the imposition of European sanctions in April 2022. EU restrictions have banned Russian truckers from entering the territory of the union, which has turned Western companies into monopolists in the transportation market and hit the income of Russian companies sharply.
At the end of June, the Association of International Road Carriers spoke in detail about the problem, which demanded that Vladimir Putin take urgent measures. According to the association, the cost of the average route from Russia to the EU before the war was estimated at about €3.2 thousand, after – at €12 thousand. The losses of Russian companies from sanctions were estimated at about 70 billion rubles, while this amount is growing every day, the association noted. A mirror response for Russia was not a very good decision, as enterprises and companies were afraid that in this case, European companies would simply refuse to supply critical equipment.